1. science
2. social science
3. history

THE
LUBAR
LIST
95 UW–Madison Fall 2015 courses
which include a component of religion, spirituality, or mythology
Throughout human history, societies and cultures have
been influenced by systems of belief and spirit.
Many instructors at the University of Wisconsin–
Madison, understanding how people have considered
religion to be a significant motivator in decisionmaking, have developed their course to explore how
these belief systems affect our world.
Some courses’ content is entirely devoted to the indepth study of religion itself; other courses just touch
upon religion as one of many factors related to their
topic area.
Together, this list of courses for the coming semester
gives us a sense of how broadly—across more than 40
departments and programs—the study of religion and
spirituality is integrated into this campus’s academics.
That is the goal of the Lubar List: to simply appreciate
the value of religious literacy in preparing for life in the
global community after college.
FOLKLORE 100
Surveys folklore in the United States and around the
world, with a comparative emphasis on ways in which
individuals and groups use beliefs, songs, stories, sayings, dances, festivals, and artifacts to address issues of
identity, authenticity, and authority, in complex societies.
Mon•Wed 1:20–2:10 pm
level: Elementary • breadth: Humanities Click on the title of each course to be linked to its
entry in the UW Course Guide.
Please talk to your advisor about whether any of
these courses are the right fit for your academic path.
The UW–Madison Religious Studies Program offers both
a major and a certificate; learn more at
religiousstudies.lss.wisc.edu
RELIG ST 101
Religion in Global Perspective:
Introduction to Folklore
B239 VAN VLECK HALL
Course information taken from the UW Course Guide in April 2015. Information on each class may not be
complete, or may have changed. This list may have
missed courses which fit the criteria, and does not
include many “senior thesis,” “directed study,” or
graduate-level course numbers. Cross-listed courses
are indexed here by the alphabetically first department
sponsoring a course, which is not necessarily the
“main” department of the instructor. Please check the
UW Course Guide for the most current information,
including prerequisites.
credits: 3
Religion in Sickness and Health
How do religious peoples understand and live in sickness
and health? How does physical well-being connect to
spiritual well-being? Medicine to meaning-making? How
does looking at religion in sickness and health provide
insight into its roles? From Southeast Asia to Africa to
the United States (and particularly, Wisconsin), we’ll approach these questions using perspectives from anthropology, history, sociology, legal studies and the medical
sciences, among others.
Mon•Wed 11:00–11:50 am
5208 SEWELL SOCIAL SCIENCES
Instructor: Corrie Norman
level: Elementary • breadth: Humanities credits: 3
The Fall 2015 Lubar List was produced by the
UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
(v.150501) lubar.wisc.edu
page 2 of 23
HISTORY 123
INTER-LS 102
The Rape of Europa:
Art in Totalitarian Europe
English History: England to 1688
What were the fates of art, artists, monuments, private
collections, and museums under European totalitarianism and in the crossfire of World War II? How and
why did well-educated and well-trained museum professionals, art historians, and artists participate in or
react to Hitler’s planning for the huge Linz Museum, the
widespread European seizures of art collections (which
were largely Jewish), the huge wartime losses of art, and
the postwar actions of restoration and restitution that
continue today?
Mon•Wed•Fri 1:20–2:10 pm
L170 CONRAD A. ELVEJHEM BUILDING
Instructor: Barbara Buenger
level: Elementary • breadth: Humanities credits: 3
HEBR-BIB 103/303
Elementary Biblical Hebrew I
Introduction to the language of the Hebrew Bible (first
semester of Biblical Hebrew).
Mon•Tue•Wed•Thu 9:55–10:45 am
119 VAN HISE HALL
credits: 4
level: Elementary
Tue•Thu 11:00 am–12:15 pm
ANTHRO 104
1641 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
Cultural Anthropology and
Human Diversity
Tue•Thu 9:55–10:45 am or
Tue•Thu 11:00–11:50 am
Instructor: Jerome Camal
level: Elementary • breadth: Social Science credits: 4
Instructor: Johann Sommerville
level: Elementary • breadth: Humanities Social Science Introduction to cultural anthropology for non-majors;
comparative cross-cultural consideration of social organization, economics, politics, language, religion, ecology,
gender, and cultural change. Includes 25% coverage of
U.S. ethnic and racial minorities.
6210 SEWELL SOCIAL SCIENCES
This course focuses on the major events and most momentous social changes which shaped the development
of the English people. The objectives are (i) to investigate
how a small island off the coast of Continental Europe
came to be a world power which exercised an incalculable influence on history and culture around the globe;
(ii) to foster an understanding of societies very different
from our own; and (iii) to enhance critical and analytical
thinking, and communication skills.
The first part of the course examines the impact of
the successive invasions of the Romans, ­Anglo-Saxons,
Vikings, and Normans. Topics include the evolution of
the English church and state during the Middle Ages,
the nature of feudalism, the troubled reign of King John,
and the effects of the Black Death and other plagues on
English life in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
The second part of the course starts with the Wars
of the Roses and deals with the last phase of the Middle
Ages and the beginnings of modern England. Topics include the dissolution of the monasteries and the destruction of the church’s independence, ­reforms in government under the Tudors, the steep growth of population,
and resulting economic stresses. Particular attention
will be given to the reign of Elizabeth I, the origins of the
English Civil War in the 1640s, and the significance of the
Glorious Revolution of 1688.
credits: 3
ENGL 155
Classical Myth and Modern Literature
Introduction to concepts of myth and mythology,
myth-making and the modern study of myth in relation
to myths and legends common in English and American
literature.
Mon•Wed•Fri 1:20–2:10 pm
2125 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
Instructor: Ronald Harris
level: Elementary • breadth: Literature credits: 3
The Fall 2015 Lubar List was produced by the
UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
(v.150501) lubar.wisc.edu
page 3 of 23
Frankenstein—to the ghosts of history, including slavery,
the Holocaust, the Vietnam War, and the afterlives of
ideas that survive beyond their time.
Instructor: Sara Guyer
credits: 3
PSYCH/SOC 160
Human Sexuality: Social and
Psychological Issues
Biological, psychological, and sociological aspects of
sexual relationships and behavior. The course presents theoretical and empirical materials on sexuality
throughout the life-course, including childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and later life. Attention is given to
gender, religion, education, and the law as they relate to
sexual expression in society.
Mon•Wed•Fri 8:50–9:40 am
6210 SEWELL SOCIAL SCIENCES
Instructor: John Delamater
level: Elementary • breadth: Social Science credits: 3–4
ENGL 167
Life Forms
This First-Year Interest Group lecture, which will be
linked with introductory courses in biology and in chemistry, will present scientific and literary works that contribute to modern thinking about life forms and planetary life in humans, animals, and plants. Its focus will be
on works written between 1700 and the present. We will
move from thinking about specific life forms to thinking about planetary and ecological systems. Works will
include Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Erasmus Darwin’s
“Loves of the Plants,” and, near the end of the semester,
Italo Calvino’s “Cosmic­omics,” short stories in which he
spins fictions off twentieth-century understanding of the
history of the cosmos and the history of life. The course
will conclude by thinking about how life forms continue
to evolve in the ecology of the planet.
Mon•Wed 11:00–11:50 am
145 BIRGE HALL
Instructor: Theresa Kelley
level: Elementary • breadth: Literature credits: 3
ENGL 175
level: Elementary • breadth: Literature HISTORY 200
Mass Violence in Europe: 1900–1950
The first half of the twentieth century was a period of
unprecedented mass violence across Europe. By focusing
on violent episodes, perpetrated by and usually against
Europeans, we will work together to solve the puzzle of
why violence became so prevalent during this period.
What were the “ingredients” for modern mass violence?
What role did ordinary people play in ethnic cleansing,
rape, mass shootings, and the running of concentration
and death camps? How have victims, perpetrators, bystanders, and eyewitnesses recorded these experiences,
and what kinds of clues have they left for us?
Our job will be to dig deep into a wide range of primary and secondary sources that deal with violence including photographs, memoirs, eyewitness accounts, diaries,
newspaper articles, sound recordings, film, and propaganda posters in order to debate such questions. Case
studies will include King Leopold’s brutal regime in the
Belgian Congo, the ethnic cleansing of civilians during
World War I, the Holocaust of European Jewry, and the
rapes and mass deportations of Germans at the end of
World War II. Through engaging with these disturbing
but important topics, we’ll also discuss how we might
gain insights into ongoing v
­ iolence in today’s world.
Wed 11:00 am–12:55 pm
5257 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
Instructor: Kathryn Ciancia
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities credits: 3
HISTORY 200
The Seven Deadly Sins in
American History
Ghost Stories
Mon•Wed 4:00–5:15 pm
How do we live with ghosts and what should we do
with them? This course will focus on ghost stories: from
British literature’s favorite ghost stories—Hamlet and
Instructor: Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities 2125 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
credits: 3
The Fall 2015 Lubar List was produced by the
UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
(v.150501) lubar.wisc.edu
page 4 of 23
RELIG ST 200
HISTORY 201
Love and Attachment in
Buddhist Literature and Art
Religion in Roman Africa
Mon•Wed•Fri 11:00–11:50 am
1101 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
Wed 3:30–5:25 pm
4013 VILAS HALL
Instructor: Anne Hansen
level: Elementary • breadth: Humanities credits: 3
Travel Writing as Historical Sources
History of Western Art I:
From Pyramids to Cathedrals
Examines arts and cultures of Europe and the Mediterranean basin before the Renaissance. We explore canonical
works such as the pyramids at Giza, the Parthenon in
Athens, the Venus di Milo, Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, the Book of Kells, the Great Mosque at Cordoba, Chartres cathedral, and Giotto’s Arena Chapel. But we also
define art broadly, to encompass the material culture of
everyday life, including jewelry, ceramics, and textiles.
We consider the social and historical contexts of art
and artistic production—art and imperialism, ethnicity,
technology, religious ritual, belief, myth, and storytelling.
These explorations address basic human concerns: death
and the afterlife, desire and the body, self-definition and
portraiture, power and propaganda, monstrosity and the
supernatural, the divine and the sacred.
Mon•Wed•Fri 12:05–12:55 pm
Instructor: Thomas Dale
level: Elementary • breadth: Humanities credits: 4
HIST SCI 201
The Origins of Scientific Thought
Emergence of scientific method and scientific modes
of thought out of ancient philosophical and religious
traditions; the impact of ancient science on medieval Christendom; the origins and development of the
­Copernican-Newtonian world view.
Mon•Wed 12:05–12:55 pm
2650 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
Instructor: Florence Hsia
level: Elementary • breadth: Humanities credits: 4
HISTORY 201
ART HIST 201
L160 CONRAD A. ELVEHJEM BUILDING
Instructor: Marc Kleijwegt
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities Early Modern European explorers, colonists, and travelers wrote many and long fascinating accounts of their
travels, filled both with exotic tales and with hyper-specific useful knowledge sought after by European colonial
and trading companies. Sometimes these travel accounts
are the only written sources to encounters between
Europeans, Native Americans, Africans, and other people
around the world, and historians have found a variety of
ways to employ these complicated and important historical sources. Early Modern travel accounts are therefore a
perfect place to start broaching questions about historical writing, methodology, and practice.
Tue•Thu 9:30–10:45 am
2190 GRAINGER HALL
Instructor: Pernille Ipsen
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities credits: 4
HISTORY 201/RELIG ST 200
The Catholic Church and the World
Current affairs attest to the power of religion in shaping
international politics. Right now, all eyes are turned to
political Islam. But in recent history, political Christianity and the Catholic Church also transformed global
politics, social networks, and the world-views of millions
of people. This course develops a framework for analysis,
delving into how, and why, the Catholic Church gained
new political and social power in the twentieth century,
and how it expanded its reach beyond its native Rome to
regions in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Topics covered
include the Catholic Church’s changing stance on democ-
credits: 3
The Fall 2015 Lubar List was produced by the
UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
(v.150501) lubar.wisc.edu
page 5 of 23
racy; anti-Semitism and ecumenism; gender politics; and
economic development.
Thu 3:30–5:25 pm
103 BROGDEN PSYCHOLOGY BUILDING
Instructor: Giuliana Chamedes
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities credits: 3
ART HIST 205
Global Arts
Art is global (and always has been). Today, we find
Egyptian protest artists inspiring activists around
the globe via the Internet, but in earlier times Roman
glass and Buddhist icons moved along the ancient Silk
Route, networks of exchange flourished in the medieval
Mediterranean region, and colonial empires brought
visual cultures into volatile contact. This course teaches
students how to analyze images and objects produced
through such exchanges that occurred around the world
from ancient times through the contemporary. Its aims
are to develop skills needed to live fully in a world in
which borders are no barriers to the movement of images,
objects, and ideas and to deepen understanding of cultural differences and interactions. By exploring works in
a range of media and tracing processes of cross-cultural
exchange, the course also develops sensitivity to visual
and material form and a solid foundation in the practice
of visual and material analysis.
Tue•Thu 11:00 am–12:15 pm
L160 CONRAD A. ELVEHJEM BUILDING
Instructor: Quitman Phillips
level: Elementary • breadth: Humanities credits: 4
HISTORY/LCA/RELIG ST 205
The Making of the Islamic World:
The Middle East, 500–1500
This course covers a 750-year period and stretches from
Morocco to Central Asia. The period and place are so
large, and the peoples concerned so diverse, as to beg the
question, how we might possibly do any of it justice in 15
weeks? We will not concentrate on a single aspect of the
region’s historical experience, politics, or religion, but
on a larger and more important issue: the interconnec-
tions of everything on which evidence has survived that
played a role in large-scale historical change.
These will include the region’s physical environment,
human ecology, politics, social life culture, economy,
technology, and religion, all of which we will be studying
in some detail. By not giving precedence to any one of
these, but by looking for their connections and interactions over time, you will see how one of the world’s great
civilizations came into being and developed over time.
The course starts where all historical inquiry begins:
with how the peoples we are studying have adapted to
their physical environments. This will require giving
some consideration to the environment itself, both its
distinctive features and how it might be compared to the
environmental settings of the other agrarian civilizations of the pre-modern past. We will then examine how
the region’s peoples adapted to it as farmers, peasants,
nomads, and city-dwellers, again trying to understand
context through comparison.
From there we move to something that appeared in
the region before anywhere else, and that like the environment gave it its historical unity: the agrarian empire.
We will then be in a position to approach a set of recorded history’s greatest developments: the appearance
of ­Islam, the Arab conquests, and the formation of an
Islamic empire and Islamic civilization.
The remainder of the course will be devoted to an
examination of Islamic civilization as it developed in the
aftermath of the breakup of the early Islamic empire.
In this section we will give considerable attention to
institutions that survived until the early-modern period
and some, in altered form, to recent times. Please note
that this is not a course that puts religion at the center,
though of course we will be studying the central ideas
and practices of Islam throughout. Think of it instead as
an attempt to understand how environment, economy,
politics, culture, social life, and religion interacted over
time to produce and sustain a civilization.
Tue•Thu 4:00–5:15 pm
1101 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
Instructor: Michael Chamberlain
level: Elementary • breadth: Humanities credits: 3
The Fall 2015 Lubar List was produced by the
UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
(v.150501) lubar.wisc.edu
page 6 of 23
relations, gender and sexuality, religion, and problems in
community building.
JEWISH/RELIG ST 211
Introduction to Judaism
Mon•Wed•Fri 1:20–2:10 pm
General introduction to Judaism covering the biblical,
classical rabbinic, medieval, and modern periods.
Mon•Wed 2:30–3:45 pm
5231 SEWELL SOCIAL SCIENCES
Instructor: Jordan Rosenblum
level: Elementary • breadth: Humanities credits: 4
Literatures of Central Asia
in Translation
Critical survey of the development of medieval and
modern literatures of the peoples of Central Asia from
pre-Islamic times to the present with selected readings in
English translation.
Mon•Wed 2:30–3:45 pm
Instructor: Uli Schamiloglu
level: Intermediate • breadth: Literature Instructor: Anthony Michels
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities credits: 4
HISTORY/JEWISH 220
Introduction to
Modern Jewish History
LITTRANS 214/LCA 314
123 VAN HISE HALL
180 SCIENCE HALL
credits: 3
HISTORY/JEWISH 219
The American Jewish Experience:
From Shtetl to Suburb
A century and a half ago, the United States was a backwater of the Jewish world, then centered in Europe
and the Ottoman Turkish Empire. Yet, by the 1950s, the
­United States became home to the largest, most prosperous, and most secure Jewish community in modern history. Why did millions of Jews come to the United States?
How has life in a liberal political and capitalist economic
order shaped the Jewish experience in America? In turn,
how have Jews influenced American culture, politics,
and society? This course surveys the history of American
Jews from the eighteenth century to the twenty-first century. Topics include patterns of politics, social mobility,
Jewish culture in Yiddish and English, interethnic group
This course introduces students to the history of the Jews
in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and the Americas between ca. 1772 and 1967. It assumes no prior knowledge. We will take as our starting point three questions
asked repeatedly by Jews and non-Jews in this 200-year
period:
1) Are the Jews a religious group, a nation, or an ethnic
minority?
2) Is Judaism or being Jewish compatible with modernity?
3) Do the Jews belong in modern states and societies?
Rather than being concerned only with Jews, such questions reflected and produced competing visions about
politics, society, economics, religion, and culture in the
modern world. Our goal is to investigate how and why
these questions arose and were answered in particular
ways. To do this, we will use the tools of historical scholarship to understand the hopes and fears of people from
the past and the larger forces that framed their beliefs,
practices, and experiences.
As case studies, our course will examine topics such
as the struggle for legal equality, Hasidism and its
opponents, the Haskalah or Jewish Enlightenment, new
Jewish religious streams from Reform to ultra-Orthodoxy, Jewish political movements such as Zionism and
socialism, the Shoah (Holocaust), the founding of the
state of Israel, and the wave of decolonization. A central
theme of the course will be the formation of the modern
state system and its implications for members of minority groups such as the Jews.
Tue•Thu 1:00–2:15 pm
1111 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
Instructor: Amos Bitzan
level: Elementary • breadth: Humanities credits: 4
The Fall 2015 Lubar List was produced by the
UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
(v.150501) lubar.wisc.edu
page 7 of 23
PHILOS 220
Philosophy and the Sciences
Is science value-free? What distinguishes it from pseudo-­
science, religion, and technology? Philosophical problems of explanation, rationality, knowledge, paradigms,
moral issues of research and philosophical consequences
of scientific theories.
Tue•Thu 1:00–2:15 pm
121 BROGDEN PSYCHOLOGY BUILDING
credits: 3–4
Instructor: Elliott Sober
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities Social Science HISTORY 223/RELIG ST 400
War, Religion, and Race in
Modern Europe
This course investigates the complex history of European
war-making through the lens of race and religion. We
will analyze the major conflicts of the twentieth century,
from World War I to the Spanish Civil War; from the
Armenian Genocide to the Holocaust and the “war on
terror.” How did religious forces and racial claims shape
these conflicts? How were these wars justified at the time
and later understood by filmmakers, journalists, and
everyday citizens? Join us as we make sense of ­European
war-making, state and grassroots terrorism, and the
prerequisites of peace.
Tue•Thu 11:00 am–12:15 pm
1111 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
Instructor: Giuliana Chamedes
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities credits: 4
HISTORY 225
The First Islamic Empire
The Arab conquests of the seventh-century CE are often
treated as a decisive break in the history of the Middle
East, one that divides study of the region into the firm
categories of the “ancient” and “Islamic.” The Islamic
empires that followed the conquests are usually treated
more as Islamic than imperial developments. This class,
asking how the Arab conquest of the East Roman and
­Sasanian empires resulted in a new universal empire,
will question the notion of a clean break. Rather than
taking the period immediately prior to the rise of Islam
as our starting point, we will seek out long-term continuities in the history of the region, especially those relating
to the appearance and historical development of the
universal cosmopolitan empire.
Questions include: what distinguishes such empires
from other forms of political organization; how did the
formation of ever-larger political entities lead to more
universal cultural fusions; in what respects can the Arab
conquests be seen less as a new departure than as a culmination of social, political, and cultural processes that
had long shaped the region; what kinds of evidence can
we examine to compare and contrast periods in which
the languages and literary and history-writing traditions
are so different; how can material evidence help us to
understand long-term developments that are difficult to
follow in documentary or literary evidence?
We will begin by asking how the region’s physical
environment and human adaptation to it shaped the
development of its political organization. We then move
on to an examination of the universal cosmopolitan
agrarian empire in comparative context. The main part
of the course looks at approaches to understanding the
Arab conquests and the formation of an Islamic empire
and high culture through the height of its power and the
beginning of its fragmentation around 900 CE.
Tue•Thu 1:00–2:15 pm
4028 VILAS HALL
Instructor: Michael Chamberlain
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities credits: 3
HISTORY 230/RELIG ST 230/JEWISH 231
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam:
Braided Histories
Jews, Christians, and Muslims are collectively referred to
as the Abrahamic traditions, but their religious traditions are as separate as they are unique, even down to
their disparate views on the nature of God. Nevertheless,
they have evolved in constant contact with each other;
their histories are braided and their adherents always
conscious of each other, for good and ill. Current events
reflect attitudes not just of the moment but centuries in
the making, which is why this course presents a history
of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam from the emergence
of the original traditions about Abraham (ca. 2000 BCE)
The Fall 2015 Lubar List was produced by the
UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
(v.150501) lubar.wisc.edu
page 8 of 23
to the present. Topics include each religion’s major texts;
the changing political, cultural, and intellectual contexts in which they developed; their confrontations with
“modernity;” and their relationships with state power.
Besides learning about the history of the traditions individually and collectively, you will gain a deeper context
for understanding today’s headlines.
Mon•Wed 11:00–11:50 am
4028 VILAS HALL
Instructor: Charles Cohen
level: Elementary • breadth: Humanities credits: 3
JEWISH 230
Representing the Holocaust
in Poland
Mon•Wed•Fri 9:55–10:45 am
Instructor: Halina Filipowicz
level: Elementary • breadth: Literature credits: 3
574 VAN HISE HALL
Tue•Thu 4:00–5:15 pm
375 VAN HISE HALL
a revolutionary event which reconfigured the position of
Jerusalem in the consciousness of the world.
Our investigation of the ways in which the European-­
based empires shaped the political-ethnic-national realities of the Middle East will provide a necessary component for the understanding of the current conflicts over
Jerusalem and the Land of Israel/Palestine in particular
and for the comprehension of the current situation in
the Middle East at large. The premise that the study of
the ethical, theological, and national components of the
historical narrative of Jerusalem and the Land of Israeli
will advance a better understanding of the emotions of
violence and enmity that preclude peace in this crucial
part of the world will guide our journey into this complex and conflicted part of the world.
credits: 3
JEWISH 231
Jerusalem, Holy City of Conflict
and Desire
Jerusalem has been an object of desire and longing for
the three monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity,
and Islam. It is the site of the Jewish Temples, of Jesus’
Tomb, and of the Mosques of the Dome of the Rock and
Al-Aqsa. For thousands of years, Jerusalem and the Holy
Land epitomizes has inspired artists and visionaries,
while the desire to possess the city, the Land, and the
holy places has caused hostilities, conflicts, and wars
which are by no means over.
Starting with Abraham, the forefather of the three
religions, we shall study the religious factors and the
political interests demonstrated in the Holy Scriptures
of the three religions, in the historical events, such as
the Crusades, as well as in the poetry and the myths that
have shaped the unique ethos of Jerusalem. We shall focus on the exploration of the historical, sociological, and
psychological reasons for the emergence of the modern
Zionist movement in Europe that resulted in the return
to the Land and to the establishment of the Jewish State,
Instructor: Rachel Brenner
level: Elementary • breadth: Humanities ILS/RELIG ST 234
Genres of Western Religious Writing
Writing-intensive course based on the conventions in
which Western writers have expressed religious ideas.
Readings from Jewish, Christian, and other spiritualities.
Tue•Thu 1:20–2:10 pm
346 BIRGE HALL
Instructor: Ulrich Rosenhagen
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities credits: 3
LITTRANS/MEDIEVAL 235
The World of Sagas
The Icelandic sagas viewed in their social, cultural, and
literary contexts. An introduction to one of the greatest
bodies of vernacular literature of the early Middle Ages.
Mon•Wed•Fri 2:25–3:15 pm
487 VAN HISE HALL
Instructor: Scott Mellor
level: Elementary • breadth: Literature credits: 3
The Fall 2015 Lubar List was produced by the
UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
(v.150501) lubar.wisc.edu
page 9 of 23
MUSIC 236
Jewish Composers:
Early Modern to Modern
Mon•Wed•Fri 2:25–3:15 pm
2261 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
Instructor: Jeanne Swack
level: Elementary
credits: 3
AFROAMER/ART HIST 241
Introduction to African Art
and Architecture
This course examines the rich heritage of African arts
and architecture as they shape and have been shaped by
the histories and cultural values (social, political, religious, philosophical, and aesthetic) of African peoples,
both past and present, on the continent where humanity
began. Given Africa’s enormous ecological and ­cultural
diversity, we cannot be comprehensive. Instead, we
present an historical overview that highlights selected
artistic traditions from different parts of the continent
from 26,000 BCE to the twentieth century; thematic and
cultural case studies: textiles and personal/body arts;
masquerades; architecture; artistic movements; and
individual artists. We do not have a passive, objective
relationship to Africa, its people, and its artistry: we have
been shaped by Euro-American culture and a deeply
embedded history of racism. Where possible the course
highlights historical and contemporary intersections
between Africa and Euro-America, demonstrating that
our exploration of this art history is as much an encounter with our own cultural values as those of the peoples
from whom the art originates.
Mon•Wed 2:25–3:15 pm
L140 CONRAD A. ELVEHJEM BUILDING
Instructor: Henry Drewal
level: Elementary • breadth: Humanities credits: 3
ENGL 241
Literature and Culture I:
To the Eighteenth Century
This course provides an introduction to literature in
English from the Middle Ages to the early eighteenth
c­ entury. Together with English 242, it provides an introduction to British literary history, and its primary goals
include familiarizing students with the canon of English
literature and preparing students for more specialized
study in advanced courses in the major. The course
spans roughly 1000 years, from the origins of English
literature to the rise of the novel. Along the way, we will
examine how literature engaged with topics as disparate
as love, religion, and science, and we will read everything
from elegant descriptions of angelic beings to 600-yearold fart jokes.
To focus our discussions, we will concentrate on
questions of form and genre, including the epic, f­ abliau,
romance, sonnet, lyric, and novel. Emphasis will be on
close reading and literary analysis, but we will also pay
close attention to the social, cultural, and political contexts from which each text emerged. Texts may include
Beowulf; Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales; Paradise Lost; Oroonoko; and poetry by Shakespeare, Spenser, and Donne.
Mon•Wed 11:00–11:50 am
credits: 3
180 SCIENCE HALL
Instructor: Jordan Zweck
level: Intermediate • breadth: Literature GEOG/HISTORY/LCA/POLI SCI/SOC 244
Introduction to Southeast Asia:
Vietnam to the Philippines
Southeast Asia is a region that today consists of eleven
nations: Brunei, Cambodia (Kampuchea), East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar (Burma), Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, each with its own
history, cultural and ethnic diversity, and political and
socio-economic conditions. Nevertheless, it is a region—
between China and India—that possesses many cultural
and historical similarities and continuities that make
it unique. This course is intended to provide a general
introduction to Southeast Asia’s past and present.
The course is organized chronologically around three
broad periods: 1) traditional states and societies (to
ca. 1830); 2) colonial transformations and indigenous responses (ca. 1830–1945); and 3) the emergence of modern
nations (since 1945). Within these broad time frames, the
course will explore several topics and themes, among
them: the origins of indigenous states; religious conversion and practice; ethnicity, social organization, and
The Fall 2015 Lubar List was produced by the
UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
(v.150501) lubar.wisc.edu
page 10 of 23
gender relations; the impact of colonial domination;
modern social and economic transformations; responses to colonial rule; the development of nationalist and
socialist-communist movements and revolutions; the
nature of post-colonial societies and political systems;
ethnic conflict and national integration; the impact of
Cold War international relations; and U.S. involvement
and intervention in the region.
Given the size and diversity of the region, the course
will concentrate on four Southeast Asian countries­—
Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand—that
are the primary research areas of UW–Madison’s Southeast Asia program and for which significant resources
exist on campus: course offerings (including languages),
library holdings, and study-abroad opportunities.
Tue•Thu 9:30–10:45 am
1111 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
credits: 4
Instructor: Michael Cullinane
level: Elementary • breadth: Humanities Social Science GERMAN 245/445/645
Dutch Tolerance and
Multiculturalism
Common representations of the Netherlands seem
contra­dictory. Some people picture row upon row of tulips in fields, windmills, nearly perfectly parallel ditches,
thoughtful zoning practices in cities: a well-planned society. Conversely, facts and misconceptions about such curiosities as Dutch drug policy, a regulated sex industry, the
practice of euthanasia, gay rights, and multiculturalism
—often lumped together under the rubric of tolerance—
oddly counterbalance the aforementioned tamer images.
Do these different views represent two different strains,
or two extremes, within Dutch culture? Are they related?
Do these cultural practices find their source in a consistent approach?
In the most recent decade, the international press
has reported on the influx of “newer” Dutch citizens, the
notorious murders of two public figures Pim Fortuyn,
and Theo van Gogh, and ongoing arguments about the
demands that the Dutch might place on immigrants, including by such internationally known persons as Geert
Widlers and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and asks whether these
phenomena herald a major change in Dutch society. This
course looks at the history and context of these events to
attempt a nuanced understanding.
We will investigate the role and meaning of tolerance
and the recent attempts at multiculturalism in Dutch
culture by studying approaches to tolerance and community that have shaped current debates and practices. We
will note the history of the area, influences of geography
and climate, the importance of trade and international
contacts, Dutch relations with the country’s minority
groups (including Jewish citizens and those from the
Indies who were once immigrants), the Dutch Revolt
and founding of the Dutch nation, the Reformation,
philosophers such as Erasmus, debates about the roles
of the state and voluntary affiliations in the nineteenth
­century, social control and attitudes toward social and
economic safety nets, the effect of immigration throughout history, and the rise and decline of that typically
Dutch (but supposedly now defunct) form of societal
organization, “pillarization,” a strategy for dealing with
political, religious, and sub-cultural differences that
was in place long before the recent waves of immigration. We will ask: how well do recent immigrant groups
fare in Dutch society, and has Dutch society changed in
­response to their presence?
In our attempt to understand the role of the notion
of tolerance (whether the models be verdraagzaamheid,
gedoogpolitiek, integratie, or inburgering), we will ­consider
contributions to the ongoing debate selected from a
range of cultural expressions, including literary works,
the fine arts, film, music, and public policy.
Mon•Wed•Fri 1:20–2:10 pm
483 VAN HISE HALL
Instructor: Jolanda Taylor
level: Elementary • breadth: Humanities credits: 3
LCA 266
Introduction to the Middle East
An interdisciplinary introduction to the diverse cultures,
geography, history, modern states, politics, societies, and
economies of the Middle East. Since the Middle East is
The Fall 2015 Lubar List was produced by the
UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
(v.150501) lubar.wisc.edu
page 11 of 23
predominantly Muslim, there will be a special emphasis
on Islam as a religion and Muslim peoples.
Tue•Thu 2:30–3:45 pm
180 SCIENCE HALL
credits: 3
Instructor: Uli Schamiloglu
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities Social Science Comparative and thematic introduction to diverse Asian
religious traditions, ideas and communities, and their
relevance to human societies of the past and present.
Mon•Wed 1:20–2:10 pm
credits: 3
level: Elementary • breadth: Humanities GERMAN/JEWISH/LITTRANS 269
Yiddish Literature and Culture
in Europe
After a brief introduction to Yiddish language, this
course will investigate how Yiddish culture gave European Jewish life its distinctive stamp. It will concentrate
on the modern period (1864–1945) when advocates of Yiddish turned it into an independent vehicle employable
for describing and detailing every aspect of Jewish life
and experience. Focus on this period will teach students
to appreciate the aesthetic merits of modern literary and
filmic Yiddish texts. After providing an introduction to
the work of Yiddish literary pioneers Sholem Yankev
Abramovitsh, Yitzhok Leibush Peretz, and Sholem
Aleichem, the course will turn its attention to Interwar
­Polish and Soviet Yiddish cultural expression to explore
how divergent cultural contexts produced divergent
Yiddish cultural forms. The course will conclude with
analysis of Yiddish literary responses to the Holocaust
that confront Yiddish culture and its practitioners’ precipitous decline on European soil.
credits: 3
Instructor: Cora Kluge
level: Elementary • breadth: Humanities HIST SCI/MED HIST 284
Physician in History
Through readings extending from Antiquity to recent
coverage of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, we will begin by examining the origins of the concept of a “plague”
in Biblical literature as well as in historical writings of
ancient Greece. From there we will look at how the concept of plague has been constantly reinforced over many
centuries, retaining a core set of key features even as it
has also been applied to new outbreaks of disease and
to new historical events such as the Holocaust. In all of
this our focus will be on the question of what constitutes
an event as a plague, as opposed to an epidemic or other
outbreak of disease.
Wed 11:00–11:50 am
credits: 1
2403 STERLING HALL
Instructor: Thomas Broman
level: Elementary • breadth: Humanities ART HIST 300
The Art and Archaeology of
Ancient Greece
Explores the art and archaeology of ancient Greece from
the Bronze Age through the Hellenistic period.
Mon•Wed•Fri 8:50–9:40 am
L140 CONRAD A. ELVEHJEM BUILDING
Tue•Thu 11:00 am–12:15 pm
Instructor: Philip Hollander
level: Elementary • breadth: Literature Introduction to German-speaking cultures. Readings and
lectures in English.
394 VAN HISE HALL
Asian Religions in Global Perspective
225 INGRAHAM HALL
Wisconsin’s German-American
Heritage
Mon•Wed•Fri 11:00–11:50 am
E ASIAN/HISTORY/RELIG ST 267
5206 SEWELL SOCIAL SCIENCES
GERMAN 278
credits: 3
Instructor: Nicholas Cahill
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities credits: 3
The Fall 2015 Lubar List was produced by the
UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
(v.150501) lubar.wisc.edu
page 12 of 23
LCA 300
AMER IND/ANTHRO 314
History of Yoga
Indians of North America
Tue•Thu 1:00–2:15 pm
367 VAN HISE HALL
Instructor: Gudrun Buhnemann
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities credits: 3
Instructor: Larry Nesper
level: Intermediate • breadth: Social Science Love and Sex in Buddhism
credits: 3
HEBR-MOD/JEWISH 301
Introduction to Hebrew Literature
Tue•Thu 11:00 am–12:15 pm
credits: 3
level: Advanced • breadth: Literature Develops awareness and knowledge of cultural influences on business. Focuses on various attitudes toward
work, time, material possession, business, and the relationship of these attitudes to different social, religious,
philosophical, and educational backgrounds of business
people from cultures around the world.
Tue•Thu 1:00–2:15 pm
credits: 3
HISTORY 320
History of Islamic Art and
Architecture
Early Modern France: 1500–1715
This course surveys the architecture, landscape, book
arts, and luxury objects produced in Islamic contexts
from Spain to India from the seventh through the twenty-first centuries. Attention will be focused upon the relationships between Islamic visual idioms and localized
religious, political, and socioeconomic circumstances. In
particular, lectures and readings will examine the vital
roles played by religious identity, imperial power, gift
exchange, trade, and workshop practices in the formulation of visual traditions. Throughout the course, we will
also explore the benefit and limitations of using “Islamic”
as a category for artistic analysis.
Tue•Thu 4:00–5:15 pm
Instructor: Jennifer Pruitt
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities Intercultural Communication
in Business
2195 GRAINGER HALL
ART HIST 305/RELIG ST 400
L150 CONRAD A. ELVEHJEM BUILDING
credits: 3
GEN BUS/INTL BUS 320
Tue•Thu 2:30–3:45 pm
Instructor: Lara Du Perron
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities Tue•Thu 9:55–10:45 am
5206 SEWELL SOCIAL SCIENCES
LCA 300
379 VAN HISE HALL
Description and analysis of native cultures, and the role of
environmental and historical factors in North ­America.
credits: 3
This course explores the political, social, and cultural history of France from the late sixteenth to the early eighteenth centuries. First theme: politics. In the sixteenth
century, France is torn apart by the wars of religion.
By the late seventeenth century, Louis XIV struts the
stage of history in his red high heels: the most powerful
monarch in Europe. He commands a growing empire in
the New World as well. How do French kings become the
model absolutist, monarchs? How do they engage in high
court politics and international geopolitics?
Second theme: Society and everyday life. What was
life like for the 20 million subjects of the king? We will
explore the world of nobles fighting duels; peasants
struggling to survive; French colonists and Indians
colliding in New France; women rioting for bread; playwrights like Molière looking for a laugh. We will focus
on all aspects of popular culture, such as witchcraft,
peasant revolts, religious strife between Catholics and
The Fall 2015 Lubar List was produced by the
UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
(v.150501) lubar.wisc.edu
page 13 of 23
­ rotestants, gender dynamics within households and
P
villages, and the life of artisans on the road.
Third theme: culture. This theme overlaps with politics and society. How do the French experiment with new
ideas and shape their identity from the religious revolutions of the sixteenth century through the early Enlightenment of the eighteenth century?
Mon•Wed•Fri 9:55–10:45 am
1131 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
Instructor: Suzanne Desan
level: Intermediate • breadth: Social Science credits: 3
Occupation, Holocaust, Memory in
Dutch Literature
In this course we will consider a variety of texts selected
from the Dutch language literary tradition that engages
with the Nazi occupation of the Low Countries during
World War II, the Holocaust from the perspective of the
Low Countries, and the memory of both these in later
decades. We will look at the techniques, devices, methods, and structures that writers employ to engage and
educate the reader, to provide an aesthetic experience, to
challenge the reader, and to raise the big questions.
Mon•Wed•Fri 11:00–11:50 am
Instructor: Jolanda Taylor
level: Intermediate, Advanced • breadth: Literature Tue•Thu 9:30–10:45 am
L140 CONRAD A. ELVEHJEM BUILDING
Instructor: Shira Brisman
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities credits: 3
RELIG ST 333
LITTRANS 326/GERMAN 325/625
579 VAN HISE HALL
art, tradition and innovation, the imagined and the experienced. The delicate preciousness of Jan van Eyck, the
strange spaces of Petrus Christus, the bizarre hellscapes
of Hieronymus Bosch, and the peasant festivals of Peter
Bruegel will guide us through these themes.
credits: 3
ART HIST 331
Netherlandish Painting of the
15th Century
Over the course of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,
painting in the Netherlands experienced dramatic technological advancements: the application of oil on panel
allowed for an unprecedented richness of color; experiments with optics led to improved illusions of space;
artists rendered light and reflections as never before. Did
these advancements in depicting the natural world conflict with or enhance the portrayal of spiritual visions?
Did realism pave the way for secular art? In this course,
we will look critically at the relationship of science and
Early Christian Literature:
Matthew to Revelation
An exploration of Christianity’s charter documents in
the light of what modern scholarship has discovered
about the New Testament’s sociohistorical context, composition, theologies, and presentations of Jesus.
Tue•Thu 9:30–10:45 am
credits: 3
594 VAN HISE HALL
level: Intermediate • breadth: Literature CLASSICS/JEWISH/RELIG ST 335
King David in History and Tradition
King David, known from 1–2 Samuel + 1 Kings 1–2, is an
important figure in both Judaism and Christianity. This
course will begin by investigating the literary portrayal
of David in these biblical texts, focusing on issues of
literary composition, character development, and textual
transmission. We then move to the historical, archaeological, and social contexts in which the text developed,
and which may begin to corroborate (or call into question) some aspects of the text’s portrayal of David.
In the second half of the course, we discuss and analyze the wide variety of modes in which the text has been
received subsequent to the consolidation of the biblical
texts. We investigate early Jewish, Christian, and Islamic
interpretations of David’s role; we consider the representation of David in visual art and recent novels; and we
reflect on the role of David in recent dramatic portrayals
on the small and silver screens. The historical figure of
David presented in Samuel and Kings developed from
an already complex literary character into an even more
The Fall 2015 Lubar List was produced by the
UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
(v.150501) lubar.wisc.edu
page 14 of 23
multifaceted amalgam of political aspirations, duplicitous dominance, and unblemished virtuousness.
Mon•Wed 2:25–3:15 pm
credits: 3
5106 SEWELL SOCIAL SCIENCES
Instructor: Jeremy Hutton
level: Intermediate • breadth: Literature FOLKLORE/LITTRANS/MEDIEVAL 346
In Translation: The Icelandic Sagas
Mon•Wed•Fri 11:00–11:50 am
credits: 4
1257 COMPUTER SCIENCES
Instructor: Susanne Arthur
level: Advanced • breadth: Literature ENGLISH 340
Romantic Literature:
“Here be Monsters” —
Monstrous Bodies and Minds
CLASSICS/ITALIAN 350
In the eighteenth century, as revolutions and claims
about human rights were repeated in colonial America
and Britain, the Caribbean, and elsewhere, claims about
who or what is a monster reverberate against the discourse of human rights, which asked these questions:
What does it mean to be human? Who is inhuman or
nonhuman? What forces are arrayed against humanity?
What is the nature of monstrosity? Do otherworldly,
ghostly presences haunt human life? What does it mean
to be human, superhuman, mad, inhuman or ghostlike, or machine-like? What obligations do we have, do
characters have, to other creatures? The literary texts
­selected for this course, all written from the last years
of the eighteenth century to the end of the nineteenth,
work out their own, distinctive presentation of these
questions: Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Emily Bronte’s
Wuthering Heights, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Ann Radcliffe’s The Italian, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Robert Louis
Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,
and William Blake’s Urizen. Each of these literary works
will be paired with exemplary and relevant scientific
writing from this era.
Through a combination of lectures, readings and discussions in English, this course considers the continuing
presence of Rome, the “Eternal City” as both a metaphoric and actual focal point of Italian artistic and cultural
sensibilities. We will begin by outlining the development
of Rome’s authoritative or “mythical” status in literature,
art, and architecture from the time of Augustus to the
Late Renaissance, when a series of Italian popes competed fiercely to perpetuate the glory of Rome and their own
fame in posterity. Students who would like to complete
work in Italian may do so. This is a culture class, not a
history or Roman government class.
Some of the themes I will incorporate into lectures
and activities are:
• transformation and metamorphosis (Rome in the flux
of time)
• pilgrimage (Rome’s sacred centrality, Rome as a
­melting pot)
• glory and authority (political, spiritual, artistic
­authority)
• violence and persecution
• Rome’s many faces (Imperial/Republican, Pagan,
Christian, New Jerusalem/den of iniquity, just/corrupt,
transient/eternal, Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance,
Baroque)
This course aims to develop the student’s ability to
think critically about how the diverse material productions of writers (including two playwrights), painters,
sculptors, architects, and philosophical thinkers of
the periods covered reflect one another and reflect the
ideas and ideologies of their age, and, in some cases,
ours. Authors include Virgil, Ovid, Plutarch, Livy, Dante, Petrarch, Trissino, Aretino, Caro, Michelangelo, and
Vasari. In addition to major architectural monuments of
Rome: The Changing Shape
of the Eternal City
Mon•Wed 2:30–3:45 pm
2653 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
Instructor: Theresa M. Kelley
level: Intermediate
credits: 3
ANTHRO/RELIG ST 343
Anthropology of Religion
Tue•Thu 9:30–10:45 am
6101 SEWELL SOCIAL SCIENCES
Instructor: Hayder Al-Mohammad
level: Intermediate • breadth: Social Science credits: 3–4
The Fall 2015 Lubar List was produced by the
UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
(v.150501) lubar.wisc.edu
page 15 of 23
Roman Antiquity, students will learn about major works
of painting, sculpture, and architecture up to the 1600s
(Bernini).
Mon•Wed 2:30–3:45 pm
104 VAN HISE HALL
Instructor: Kristin Phillips-Court
level: Intermediate, Advanced • breadth: Literature credits: 3
E ASIAN/RELIG ST 350
Introduction to Taoism
A study of the writings attributed to Lao-tzu and
­Chuang-tzu and their concepts, and the history and various aspects of religious Taoism. Consideration is given to
Taoist influences on literature.
Mon•Wed 2:30–3:45 pm
104 VAN HISE HALL
credits: 3–4
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities Survey of Muslim religious understandings of science,
technology, nature, and environment. Lectures and readings present a global perspective through case studies,
covering sources such as the Qur’an, theology and law,
and traditions of esoteric piety (mysticism), and historical and contemporary issues like medical ethics, virtual
realities, and environmental change, challenge, and
crisis.
Tue•Thu 1:00–2:15 pm
180 SCIENCE HALL
Instructor: Anna Gade
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities credits: 3
Society and Ideas in
Shakespeare’s England
Shamanism
Survey of shamanism as a religious tradition and sociocultural force in Siberian, Asian, and Native American
societies. Exploration of shamanic rituals, roles, cosmology. Cultural and political uses of shamanism in traditional and modern contexts.
Mon•Wed 2:25–3:15 pm
credits: 3
Instructor: Thomas Dubois
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities Social Science LCA/RELIG ST 355
Hinduism
An historical survey of Hindu scriptures, rituals, philosophies, and ethics from the ancient to the contemporary
world. Concepts such as karma, yoga, and reincarnation
will be put in the broader contexts of Hindu theism,
worship, and law.
Tue•Thu 4:00–5:15 pm
104 VAN HISE HALL
Islam, Science, Technology, and the
Environment
HISTORY 367
FOLKLORE/RELIG ST 352
6104 SEWELL SOCIAL SCIENCES
ENVIR ST/HIST SCI/LCA 356/RELIG ST 404
credits: 4
Instructor: Elaine Fisher
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities Social Science This course is about society and ideas in England during
Shakespeare’s lifetime (1564–1616) and, more g
­ enerally,
during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as a
whole. In that period, English population doubled,
and though the economy grew more sophisticated, the
country’s resources were barely sufficient to feed the increased population. Poverty and vagrancy spread. ­People
competed for scarce jobs, and to gain an advantage in the
competition tried to improve their educational attainments. In order to get more food from the soil people
became increasingly interested in new agricultural
techniques and scientific ideas. As education and science
spread, so old attitudes came under attack. The ferment
in ideas contributed to political conflict which culminated in the Civil War of 1642–46 and the execution of the
king (and abolition of monarchy) in 1649. Intellectual
and social changes were also closely linked to the great
flowering of English literature and culture in the age of
Shakespeare, Donne, Milton, Hobbes and Locke.
The course will explore the nature and development
of English society, and the emergence of new social,
political, and religious ideas. Themes surveyed will
include the impact of massive population growth on
the English economy and social structure; the spread of
The Fall 2015 Lubar List was produced by the
UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
(v.150501) lubar.wisc.edu
page 16 of 23
scientific thinking and the decay of belief in witchcraft;
patriarchalist social and political theories; radical and
democratic political ideas, including the thinking of the
Levellers (who advocated manhood suffrage) and Diggers
(who wanted the abolition of private property); new religious groups such as the Quakers (who included revolutionaries as well as pacifists), and Fifth Monarchists (who
expected the imminent second coming of Christ); and
the contrasting political thinking of authoritarians like
Hobbes and anti-authoritarians like Locke.
In addition to surveying social history in Shakespeare’s
England, and the history of ideas about society and politics, the course will also discuss the religious thinking of
Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Congregationalists,
Baptists, and various radical groups which emerged in
the mid-seventeenth century. It was from the struggle
between these various groups that religious toleration
emerged by the end of the seventeenth century. It was
also in the late-seventeenth century that belief in witchcraft faded amongst educated people. The final part of
the course will discuss popular and elite ideas about
witches, and about such things as ghosts, fairies, omens,
and astrology.
Tue•Thu 4:00–5:15 pm
1641 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
Instructor: Johann Sommerville
level: Intermediate • breadth: Social Science credits: 3–4
Why and how do we look at the images of bodies experiencing pain, violence, and global injustice? What
assumptions and desires are embedded in the practice of
looking and what identities are constructed in the interaction between the viewers, the images, and the persons
who are represented in the images? Do the images of
vulnerability and suffering bring actions and changes
based on solidarity? “Visualizing Bodies” focuses on these
questions in the intersections of aesthetics, ethics, and
politics of visual images of Othered bodies in humanitarian communications from transnational feminist disability studies perspectives. In addition, students will learn
a history of humanitarian media and their relationship
with transnational hierarchies. Students will practice
critical analyses of visual media including photography,
NGO campaigns, and documentaries, focusing on race,
ethnicity, gender, class, disability, health, religion, sexuality and other markers of differences, while taking structural, historical, and cultural conditions into account.
Tue•Thu 11:00 am–12:15 pm
224 INGRAHAM HALL
Instructor: Eunjung Kim
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities credits: 3
Evangelion
Israeli Fiction in Translation
Through analysis of eight leading Israeli authors’ literary
works this course explores major themes pertaining to
Israeli society’s contemporary character. Surveyed topics
include Zionism and post-Zionism; globalization; Israel
as a Jewish and democratic state; the Israeli military’s
influence on civilian life; terrorism and its effects on
national life.
Tue•Thu 9:30–10:45 am
Instructor: Philip Hollander
level: Intermediate • breadth: Literature Visualizing Bodies
LITTRANS 373
JEWISH/LITTRANS 367
1221 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
GEN&WS 372
Traces the evolution of a given idea through the course
of Japanese literature. Translations of high quality will
be the principal texts, but students of Japanese will be
encouraged to read as much as possible in the o
­ riginal.
Tue•Thu 3:30–4:45 pm
6112 SEWELL SOCIAL SCIENCES
Instructor: Steven Ridgely
level: Intermediate • breadth: Literature credits: 3
credits: 3
The Fall 2015 Lubar List was produced by the
UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
(v.150501) lubar.wisc.edu
page 17 of 23
RELIG ST 401
Environmental Justice:
Nature, Faith, and Community
Tue 4:30–5:45 pm
108 PLANT SCIENCES
Instructor: Michael Bell
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities credits: 3
2637 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
Instructor: Rudy Koshar
level: Advanced • breadth: Social Science credits: 3–4
Death & the Afterlife in Medieval Art
Mon•Wed 4:00–5:15 pm
Cities and Sanctuaries of
Ancient Greece
L150 CONRAD A. ELVEHJEM BUILDING
Topics include urbanism in ancient Greece in theory and
practice; the forms, technologies, patronage and use of
buildings; the creation and conception of urban space;
and the organization of religious sites, dedications, and
rituals.
Mon•Wed•Fri 1:20–2:10 pm
Instructor: Nicholas Cahill
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities Tue•Thu 4:00–5:15 pm
ART HIST/MEDIEVAL 415/RELIG ST 400
ART HIST 405
L150 CONRAD A. ELVEHJEM BUILDING
gender, religion, age, education, and region figure into
the answers given to this question?
credits: 3
HISTORY 410
History of Germany: 1871–Present
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the philosopher and poet Friedrich von Schiller asked “Germany? But where is it? I cannot find any such country.”
The premise of this course is that such questions were
applicable for the entire period we are studying. We will
spend the course exploring how the existence of “Germany,” as aspiration or accomplishment, entailed a search
for identity and meaning in an age in which national
states were thought to be the natural form of political
community. This search gave rise to great prosperity and
not a little political success, but also to unprecedented
violence in the form of war and genocide. Moreover, it
led to questions about social inclusion and exclusion.
If “Germany” could be imagined, or given territorial
concreteness, then who belonged? How did class, race,
Instructor: Thomas Dale
level: Advanced • breadth: Humanities credits: 3
ENGL/MEDIEVAL 427
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
Why should you take a class in the medieval literature
of Geoffrey Chaucer? Chaucer’s writings are some of the
funniest, raunchiest, most socially scathing, and radically experimental literature ever written in English.
You would be surprised. You will be surprised. Chaucer’s
Canterbury Tales is also one of the best literary bridges
we have to understand how and why our modern world
remains vitally connected to its own medieval past.
Through a slow and careful reading and discussion
that allows us to take our time with each work we study,
the literary, cultural, and political issues important to
Chaucer will be revealed, as will his medieval wit, humor,
and literary avant-gardism—along with a few seriously
NSFW passages. We’ll also explore how Chaucer became
a literary superstar (complete with his own fan fiction)
after he died, and watch the film A Knight’s Tale (2001),
to figure out why Chaucer, surprisingly and alarmingly,
shows up as a wandering and naked gambling addict.
Tue•Thu 9:30–10:45 am
2637 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
Instructor: Martin Foys
level: Intermediate • breadth: Literature credits: 3
The Fall 2015 Lubar List was produced by the
UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
(v.150501) lubar.wisc.edu
page 18 of 23
CLASSICS 430
FOLKLORE 439
Troy: Myth and Reality
Foodways
Tue•Thu 11:00 am–12:15 pm
104 VAN HISE HALL
Instructor: William Aylward
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities credits: 3
JEWISH 430
Explores artistic, social, sensory, and spiritual expressions through food that convey personal, group, and
place-based identities, ethnicity, gender, and class
in work and play. Reviews range of food writing and
scholarly perspectives including culinary historical,
structural-­functional, and performance.
Wed 2:30–5:00 pm
Testimonies and Cultural
Expressions of the Holocaust
2335 STERLING HALL
The continuing presence of the Holocaust in today’s cultural world picture reflects both the pervasive consciousness of the event and, concurrently, its persisting elusiveness. Although the story of the Jewish genocide will
remain forever incomplete, fragments of the Holocaust
experience reach us in the form of testimony. Diaries and
photographs were found in ghettoes, witnesses and rescuers left reports, liberated camps were filmed, survivors
told and recorded their stories, and perpetrators revealed
their actions at the Nazi trials. This course explores the
Holocaust testimony, its cultural representations, and its
educational significance.
First, we shall examine survivors’ recollections of their
Holocaust experience. How do the survivors construct
their testimonial narratives? What is their rationale for
telling the story? Is it possible to integrate the memory of
the Holocaust experience into the postwar life?
Then we shall focus on the cultural representations
of the event and their educational significance. We shall
consider the representations of the Holocaust in film,
fiction, poetry, drama, and comics. What do the post-Holocaust writers and artists reveal about the emotional
impact of the event? What do they teach us about human
nature and the role of moral education? How has the
consciousness of the Holocaust affected our sense of
moral responsibility? We shall emphasize the universal implications of the Holocaust legacy, especially the
importance of maintaining Holocaust consciousness in
view of the proliferation of genocides in today’s world.
Instructor: Janet Gilmore
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities credits: 3
ART HIST 440/RELIG ST 400
Art and Power in the Arab World
This course considers the use of art and architecture
as an expression of power in the Arab world, from the
seventh century to the present. Beginning with the
establishment of the caliphate and ending with the arts
of revolution following the Arab Spring, we will investigate the shifting role of art and architecture in the
quest for political dominance. With a particular focus on
the arts of Cairo, Baghdad, Cordoba, Mecca, Jerusalem,
Damascus, and the modern Arabian Gulf, we will explore
competing visions of power and sources of legitimacy,
through the lens of artistic production.
Themes include the role of cultural heritage in political disputes; visual rhetoric of the caliphate; contemporary debates over the nature of medieval Islamic art and
culture; conflict over holy spaces; and artistic exchange
between Europe and the Middle East. Incorporation of
relevant current events in the Middle East will be a regular feature of class discussion.
Tue•Thu 11:00 am–12:15 pm
L150 CONRAD A. ELVEHJEM BUILDING
Instructor: Jennifer Pruitt
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities credits: 3
Mon•Wed•Fri 11:00–11:50 am
574 VAN HISE HALL
Instructor: Rachel Brenner
level: Intermediate • breadth: Literature credits: 3
The Fall 2015 Lubar List was produced by the
UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
(v.150501) lubar.wisc.edu
page 19 of 23
LCA LANG 445
Contemporary Arabic Literature
Selection from Qur’anic and post-Qur’anic Arabic texts
to meet the needs of the students.
Mon•Wed•Fri 11:00–11:50 am
159 VAN HISE HALL
credits: 3
level: Advanced • breadth: Literature Biblical Archaeology
An examination of current problems, methods, and trends
in archaeological research in the lands of the Bible.
Thu 6:30–9:15 pm
Instructor: Jeffrey Blakely
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities credits: 3
Instructor: Christine Garlough
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities credits: 3
AMER IND/ANTHRO/BOTANY 474
Study of the interactions between human cultures and
plants. Topics include: traditional resource management
and agriculture; crop domestication, evolution, and
conservation; archaeobotany; indigenous knowledge;
folk taxonomy; plants in symbolism and religion; dietary
patterns; phytochemistry; global movement of plants
and peoples.
credits: 3
B302 BIRGE HALL
Instructor: Eve Emshwiller
level: Intermediate • breadth: Biological Sciences, Social Science Symbolic Anthropology
The course will first introduce theories about symbols,
tropes, and rituals, followed by interpretations of concrete examples of rituals which include the bear ceremony of the Ainu (hunter gatherer), the nineteenth-century
Bali, to political rituals of the French Revolution and
Nazi Germany, with questions on the communicative
capacity/limitations of symbols and rituals and their
uses (functions).
Thu 1:20–3:50 pm
Instructor: Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney
level: Advanced • breadth: Social Science 1313 STERLING HALL
Mon•Wed•Fri 11:00–11:50 am
ANTHRO 456
5230 SEWELL SOCIAL SCIENCES
Mon 3:30–6:00 pm
Ethnobotany
CLASSICS/JEWISH 451
2080 GRAINGER HALL
in feminist philosophy, folklore, anthropology, critical
cultural studies, and postcolonial theory.
credits: 3–4
FOLKLORE/GEN&WS 468
Feminism, Folklore, and
Comparative Literature
Explores feminism, folklore, and comparative literature
from a variety of perspectives drawing from scholarship
HISTORY 500/JEWISH 431
What is Anti-Semitism?
Fears of a global resurgence of anti-Semitic speech and
violence have frequently made international headlines
over the past decade. Most recently, the New York Times
reported on these fears in the wake of a ­hostage-taking
at a Paris kosher supermarket by a terrorist who ­targeted
Jewish shoppers in order to express support for the
­Charlie Hebdo killings. Closer to home, some students
and outside observers have expressed alarm about
anti-Semitism on college campuses, which they link to a
rise in activism targeted at the state of Israel. Other commentators have denied that anti-Semitism is on the rise.
Unfortunately, discussions of anti-Semitism in the
press rarely define the term or consider its history. This
seminar will engage students in a thorough and vigorous
discussion about the history of anti-Semitism as a concept and as a set of ideas and practices. We will debate
the following questions: What is and was anti-Semitism?
What have been its origins, causes, and motivations in
history? What are its connections to religion and to sec-
The Fall 2015 Lubar List was produced by the
UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
(v.150501) lubar.wisc.edu
page 20 of 23
ular ideologies? How (if at all) does anti-Semitism differ
from racism or other forms of prejudice?
We will address these questions with a global perspective, studying cases from antiquity to the present, from
Europe, the Middle East, North America, and even East
Asia. The seminar will frequently wade into contentious
questions hotly debated in the present, such as, for example, the possible relationship between anti-Semitism and
anti-Zionism.
Thu 8:50–10:05 am
2211 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
Instructor: Amos Bitzan
level: Advanced
credits: 3
HISTORY/HIST SCI/MED HIST 507
Health, Disease, and Healing I
This course examines the history of healing practices in
the Western World from antiquity to the eighteenth century. Students will examine continuities and changes in
ideas about illness and health, and the position of healers
and health institutions, within larger social and cultural
structures in particular historical periods. Students will
study the characteristics of patient-healer relationships
and cultural, legal and social perceptions and definitions
of body normativity, health and disease in the diverse
societies covered under the “Western” rubric. Through
the course we will analyze the rise and demise of theoretical models for explanations about the functioning
of the body and its relationship to the natural world. In
doing so, we will examine how a competitive marketplace of products and ideas defined medical practice in
the historical periods under study here, as well as the
strategies physicians used to suppress their competition
through medical licensing starting in the Middle Ages.
At the end of this course, students will understand the
close relationship medical practice and the study of the
body share with developments in philosophy, natural
history and, in particular, religious beliefs. Focusing on
the changing concepts and articulations between these
areas, students will examine how scientific rationalism
and biological science emerged during the early modern
era as the bases for modern medical practice.
Tue•Thu 1:00–2:15 pm
119 NOLAND ZOOLOGY BUILDING
Instructor: Pablo Gomez
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities credits: 3
GERMAN/JEWISH 510
German-Jewish Culture in the
Twentieth Century
Investigates German-Jewish culture since the eighteenth
century, concentrating on toleration, emancipation,
acculturation, assimilation, anti-Semitism, and Bildung.
Tue 3:30–6:00 pm
credits: 3
382 VAN HISE HALL
Instructor: Pamela Potter
level: Advanced
HISTORY 512
Ideas and Conflict in Europe:
1600–1815
European thought in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, from the so-called Wars of Religion to the
French Revolution, marks a watershed in Western
history. In this age of political and religious conflict,
intellectual ferment, and expanding geographical and
cultural horizons, norms that had shaped European life
for a millennium and more came under unprecedented
scrutiny and criticism. Long-held ideas about knowledge,
nature, religion, politics, ethics, and how societies should
be ordered were challenged by bold new visions. The
vehement debates of the period, which were often rooted
in and contributed to struggles over religion and politics,
laid the intellectual foundations of the modern world.
This course focuses on key aspects of these fascinating changes. We will devote much of our attention to
the Enlightenment, the age’s cutting-edge movement in
thought and culture. We will consider its origins and
spread and the diverse ways in which some of its proponents construed the world and called for change. But
the Enlightenment was not the only vital movement of
the period, and we will also look at how some contemporaries challenged and rejected its stances and values.
The Fall 2015 Lubar List was produced by the
UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
(v.150501) lubar.wisc.edu
page 21 of 23
Our aim is to equip you to think in more informed and
probing ways about what it means to be modern. In the
process you will gain practice in the skills of historical
reasoning, critical analysis of texts and arguments, and
effective writing.
Tue•Thu 1:00–2:15 pm
1131 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
Instructor: Eric Carlsson
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities credits: 3
ENGL 546
Medieval Travel Narrative
In this course we will examine a broad range of travel
texts (maps, memoirs, journals, chronicles, and more)
that were produced by medieval wanderers of many
stripes­—pilgrims, missionaries, crusaders, diplomats,
merchants, dreamers, and liars. We will focus especially
upon what these texts tell us about various conceptions of “place” from the eleventh through the fifteenth
centuries, and the effects of these conceptions upon
narrative choices and strategies. How do the differing
situations and motives of writers relating the familiar
and the strange, the near and far, the mundane and the
marvelous, govern the use of particular narrative devices
and structures in the service of (supposedly) mimetic
as well as historical “truth”? We will also investigate the
relationship of geography to questions of identity both
personal and collective. What kinds of narrative devices
are used in these works to create an “us” and a “them,”
a “self” and an “other”? Who claims space, who characterizes it, and on what grounds? Finally, this course will
ask some important questions about literary genre and
critical method. How can we best read these medieval
works, which sit somewhere between what we generally
recognize as “literature” and what we tend to think of as
“history”? What analytical tools do we already have at
our disposal, and what others do we need to seek out?
Mon•Wed 2:30–3:45 pm
B233 VAN VLECK HALL
Instructor: Lisa Cooper
level: Advanced • breadth: Literature credits: 3
COM ARTS 565
Communication and Interethnic
Behavior
This course focuses on social science research on communication within and between different ethnic and
racial groups. We begin by discussing the history and
status of race and ethnicity as concepts, then focus on
research on the development and implications of race-­
related attitudes, emotions, and beliefs in different contexts. It is not a review of history or government policy in
this area, except incidentally, as in our discussion of the
contact hypothesis and desegregation.
Mon•Wed 2:30–3:45 pm
4028 VILAS HALL
Instructor: Marie-Louise Mares
level: Advanced • breadth: Social Science credits: 3
ART HIST 579
Masquerades and the Senses
This proseminar explores the artistry of African and
African-Diaspora masquerade performances and the
crucial role of the senses in the creative process and in
our understanding of these aesthetic experiences with an
approach I call Sensiotics. Since the focus on the body is
receiving renewed attention, as engaged scholars (individually and collectively), we will participate in the masquerading traditions of Halloween and the Day of the
Dead, identify and evaluate the literature on the present
state of our knowledge of the senses, the body-mind (cognitive) sciences, and their relevance for understanding
the arts. Elements of this proseminar may also be integrated with those of the Arts Institute’s Fall 2015 Artist-in
Residence, master Cuban musician Juan de Marcos.
Mon 4:00–6:00 pm
L166 CONRAD A. ELVEHJEM BUILDING
Instructor: Henry Drewal
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities credits: 3
The Fall 2015 Lubar List was produced by the
UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
(v.150501) lubar.wisc.edu
page 22 of 23
HISTORY 600
Citizens and Slaves in the
Ancient Greek World
Citizenship was a key feature of ancient Greek political
life, but even in the most democratic cities (that is, those
with the least restrictive definition of citizenship) only
about half of the population were actually citizens. The
rest were slaves, foreigners, and Greeks from other cities.
This course explores the social history of the fifth- and
fourth-century BCE Greek world through the prism of
citizenship and non-citizenship. Who were the other
groups in Greek cities, what did they do, and how do we
know about them? How did citizens define themselves in
relation to non-citizens (and vice versa) and what duties
and responsibilities did they have? How did these groups
interact with one another and what measures were used
to define, or blur, status? Was the interaction between
citizens and non-citizens antagonistic or hospitable?
In exploring questions like these students will develop
their knowledge of the ancient world in addition to refining their historical and analytical skills.
Tue 11:00 am–12:55 pm
5257 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
credits: 3
Instructor: Claire Taylor
level: Advanced • breadth: Humanities Social Science HISTORY 600
Weimar Culture & the Rise of Nazism
Did Weimar fail? The answer to this question was once
thought to be a classic no-brainer. Historians uniformly
praised the innovativeness and vibrancy of Weimar art,
literature, architecture, city planning, cinema, and popular culture. But in political histories of the era from 1918
to 1933, the Weimar Republic stood both as the symbol
of a failed democracy and as a prelude to Nazism, war,
and genocide. Weimar’s association with liberal collapse
and the rise of authoritarianism has been enduring. As
recently as 2013, an American political commentator
in The New Republic warned that a stalemated “Weimar
America” faced some of the same challenges that pre-­
fascist Germany faced.
Over the past two decades, an interdisciplinary scholarship has re-examined Weimar politics by focusing not
just on elections and parties but also on the symbols and
discourses of political culture. This scholarship has uncovered new realms of previously unexplored social and
political experience and thereby re-opened the question
of Weimar’s failure. In this seminar we study some of the
new research themes: gender, body politics, citizenship,
empire and borderlands, visual culture, popular culture,
and consumption. We’ll use a broad array of primary
sources, including films, memoirs, novels, autobiographies, official documents, and more. It is hoped that at
the end of the seminar students will have developed their
own responses to the important question of whether
Weimar failed.
Tue 1:20–3:15 pm
5245 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
credits: 3
Instructor: Rudy Koshar
level: Advanced • breadth: Humanities Social Science HISTORY 600/JEWISH 631
African Americans and Jews in
Urban America
Millions of African Americans and Jews migrated to
northern cities in the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth
centuries. Both groups were persecuted minorities in
their places of origin and continued to suffer discrimination after migration. Many Blacks and Jews looked at
their new home as a new “promised” land or “golden”
land. Yet they encountered different realities. Their experiences sometimes followed parallel courses, but often
diverged. They interacted with one another on friendly
terms, but also came into conflict with one another.
This course aims to explore why. We will investigate in a
comparative fashion how Blacks and Jews shaped their
cultures and communities during a pivotal era in their
respective histories.
Mon 3:30–5:25 pm
5257 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
credits: 3
Instructor: Anthony Michels
level: Advanced • breadth: Humanities Social Science RELIG ST 600
Religion in Critical Perspective
Readings in the analysis of religion as a human phenomenon from various perspectives, such as: skeptical and
The Fall 2015 Lubar List was produced by the
UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
(v.150501) lubar.wisc.edu
page 23 of 23
sympathetic views toward religion; theories of religion’s
origins and functions; and examinations of religious awe.
Mon 4:15–6:10 pm
382 VAN HISE HALL
Instructor: Jordan Rosenblum
level: Advanced
credits: 3
LCA/RELIG ST 624
Meditation in Indian Buddhism
and Hinduism
Examines contemplative practices in the two major Indian religions: Buddhism and Hinduism. Covers practices
described in ancient texts but also provides an overview
of selected modern practices.
Tue•Thu 11:00 am–12:15 pm
586 VAN HISE HALL
Instructor: Gudrun Buhnemann
level: Advanced • breadth: Humanities credits: 3
LAW 740
Constitutional Law II
Rights of citizens against state and federal governments;
the nature of due process and the equal protection of the
law; the protection of freedom from invidious discrimination; the Civil Rights Acts; freedoms of expression,
association, and religion.
Mon•Wed 1:10–2:30 pm or
Tue•Thu 10:30–11:50 am
2225 LAW BUILDING; 2211 LAW BUILDING
Instructor: Heinz Klug; David Schwartz
credits: 3
HEBR-BIB 755
Psalms
Philological and linguistic study of the Book of Psalms
in Hebrew, with readings in the ancient translations.
­Special attention will be given to the book’s bearing on
our understanding of ancient Israelite religion(s).
Mon•Wed 8:00–9:15 am
LAW 739
483 VAN HISE HALL
Religion and the Constitution
Instructor: Jeremy Hutton
credits: 3
This course covers the Free Exercise Clause and the
Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution.
Tue 2:40–4:40 pm
3260 LAW BUILDING
Instructor: Ann Althouse
credits: 2
The Fall 2015 Lubar List was produced by the
UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
(v.150501) lubar.wisc.edu